A known grille shutter apparatus disclosed, for example, in JP58-139519U (which will be hereinafter referred to as Reference 1) may control a flow rate of air flowing from a grille opening portion into an engine compartment, in accordance with opening and closing operations of a shutter mechanism provided at the grille opening portion arranged at a front portion of a vehicle body.
In other words, according to the grille shutter apparatus disclosed in Reference 1, the shutter mechanism is brought in a closed state, for example, while a vehicle is moving at high speed; thereby, the flow rate of the air taken into the engine compartment is restricted. Therefore, aerodynamic performance of the vehicle may be increased (for example, a “Cd value” that is a value for coefficient of drag may be decreased). Meanwhile, according to the grille shutter apparatus of Reference 1, a flow rate of air taken into a radiator is restricted when an engine is started; thereby, a period of time to warm up the engine may be reduced. In addition, according to the grille shutter apparatus of Reference 1, for example, in a case where a temperature of the engine tends to rise, the shutter mechanism is brought in an opened state to thereby increase the flow rate of the air flowing into the engine compartment. Therefore, the temperature of the engine may be appropriately controlled.
In addition, an impact absorbing configuration is recently disclosed, for example, in JP2003-81034A (which will be hereinafter referred to as Reference 2). According to Reference 2, for example, when a collision of a vehicle occurs, the impact absorbing configuration is configured so that a front grille arranged at a front portion of a vehicle body moves into a grille opening portion in a rearward direction of the vehicle by an external force caused by the collision. The impact absorbing configuration is applied to the vehicle; thereby, an impact applied to an object, for example, a pedestrian and a bicycle, against which the vehicle collides, is absorbed and thus the object may be protected from the impact.
However, for example, in a vehicle provided with a grille shutter apparatus, a front grille is moved in a rearward direction of the vehicle by a collision of the vehicle and may therefore interfere with a shutter mechanism arranged in a grille opening portion or with a support member (frame) supporting the shutter mechanism. Consequently, the front grille is restricted from smoothly moving in the rearward direction; therefore, an impact applied to an object against which the vehicle collides may not be sufficiently absorbed by the movement of the front grille in the rearward direction.
A need thus exists for a grille shutter apparatus which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.